The Secret of Cooking

A TIMES and GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023

‘A genuinely game-changing cook book’ Nigella Lawson

‘Notes from a lifetime of reading, thinking, cooking and eating’ Diana Henry

The Secret of Cooking is packed with solutions for how to make life in the kitchen work better for you, whether you are cooking for yourself or for a crowd.

Bee shows you how to get a meal on the table when you’re tired and stretched for time, how to season properly, cook onions (or not) and what equipment really helps.

The 140 recipes are doable and delicious, filled with ideas for cooking ahead or cooking alone and the kind of unfussy food that makes everyday life taste better.

Reviews

‘It’s not often that a genuinely game-changing cook book comes out, but this accomplished, approachable and helpful book – its writing as nourishing as the recipes – is most definitely it. Quite frankly, there’s not a kitchen that should be without a copy of The Secret of Cooking’ Nigella Lawson

‘There is wisdom, and notes from a lifetime of reading, thinking, cooking and eating here. And it’s not just about food but about how we live, and how we look after ourselves and each other’ Diana Henry

‘A truly remarkable cookbook that will change lives' Rachel Roddy

‘The very acest book…so utterly lovely and so utterly necessary’ Jeremy Lee

‘A lifetime of kitchen wisdom here’ Nigel Slater

‘It is my Book of the Year, across any genre…packed to the absolute gills with invaluable advice, hints and tips, so reassuring and warm in tone that you feel actual love for the author, and, of course, also full of fantastic, achievable, home-kitchen friendly recipes that I guarantee will immediately become part of your repertoire’ India Knight

‘A wonderful book filled with great things to eat, and wisdom, wit and much kindness’ Susie Boyt, author of Loved and Missed

‘I don’t need a lot of convincing to pick up a pan, but Wilson’s tips are so clever, her recipes so tempting, and her vignettes of family life so candid, that this is a book I can read for pleasure alone’ Niki Segnit, author of The Flavour Thesaurus

‘This book is the perfect cooking companion and Bee Wilson is the ultimate kitchen friend: smart, funny, conscientious and patient, this is a book you'll want to spend time with, in and out of the kitchen' Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer, authors of Honey & Co: Food from the Middle East

‘One of those rare books that completely expresses the writer’s character. Everything she’s learned & feels about food and cooking is there’ Sheila Dillon

About the author

Bee Wilson is a home cook, journalist and writer, mostly about food. Yotam Ottolenghi has called her 'the ultimate food scholar'. She writes for a wide range of publications including the Guardian, The London Review of Books and The Wall Street Journal. She is the author of six books on food-related subjects and she is the co-founder of the food education charity TastEd. She lives in Cambridge and has three children.